Echoes of Perception
by YunaDax
Summary: John watches Elizabeth weaken during Echoes.


It was something in her poise, the way she holds herself, the way she moved that told him she's in pain. She hid it well, he'd give her that, and if he hadn't been watching her carefully, he too would have missed the tiny signs that gave her discomfort away. There's a rigidity to her stance, her muscles a little too taunt and a ghost of haze in her eyes, the irises a little too small and darker than usual. He could tell she's hurting… and tried to remain close.

He shadowed her as much as he can, almost like a protective dog guarding its wounded master. He was pulled away as Rodney tries to find a reference to the word 'Adaris' that Elizabeth had managed to decipher from the garbled message they'd recorded from the whales. His heart clenched every moment he was away from her, knowing she would be fighting her own battle with the pain and dizziness that seemed to be plaguing the Atlantis teams as a result of the whales attempt to communicate. His own head rang, and his ears still ached from the encounter while 'Sam and Co' beforehand, but Beckett had him on a cocktail of painkillers that seemed to be keeping the worst at bay. Unfortunately their medical supplies were limited, so the majority of the staff were on regular strong painkillers. He knew Elizabeth would either have hers still in her pocket, or would have offered them to someone she felt more in need than herself. Her generosity was a blessing and a curse sometime.

" Got it!" Rodney shouted, his loud voice overcompensating for his still somewhat deafness. John winced but pushed forward, leaning over Rodney's shoulder to read the screen. The Adaris was an Ancient ship... near the system's sun when a coronal ejection occured.

" Oh no...." Rodney mumbled as the same time John's guts bottomed out and started withering in angst inside him. The screen showed an image of the ejection 15,000 years ago, and already knowing what he was going to see Rodney pulled up a current image of the systems sun, scanning for the same sort of projection. Just as he expected there was a CMU forming as they spoke.

" Crap, we gotta tell Elizabeth" John said as he all but pulled Rodney out of his chair, headed at a run towards the control room.

As they puffed and panted into the large control room they were confronted with Elizabeth trying to explain the situation to Colonel Caldwell, who seemed more willing to blow the whales out of the water than trying to understand why they were there. Elizabeth terminated the communication with an angry sigh, turning her attention to Rodney and John as they entered and visibly softening her dark look. Seeing they had her full attention they tag-teamed the explanation as to what happened to the Adaris, and how royally screwed the were now that the same thing was happening now. He noted she was pinching the bridge of her nose, trying to ease the pressure that all of them were suffering. Not a good sign in the 'how is Elizabeth coping' scale.

Rodney scrambled up from his chair and over to the viewscreen, madly tapping in a sequence of instructions that brought the coronal ejection up on the big screen, making it somewhat easier to explain and show the utter screwedness in full living colour.

John moved a little closer to Elizabeth, seeing the colour drain from her face as the ideas about evacuation and defence options were tossed around the small group. She wavered inperceptively as she leaned against the consol behind her, using the solid structure for support as she tried to fight through the darkness that threatened to overtake her. A look of panic crosses her face, her eyes darting this way and that as if to try and understand this new sensation coursing through her body, she pushed away from the consol towards John, a last ditch effort to remain upright perhaps but started to crumple as her knees gave out, sending her spinning towards the floor as her eyes rolled inwards.

John's concern skyrocketed as he saw the look in her eyes seconds before she fell, only barely able to catch her and ease her gently to the floor before her head would have connected with it. There was blood trickling from her ears, running down towards her neck before beginning to drip slowly to the floor. John's heart raced, ignoring the gasps of shock as the rest of the control room sees their infallible leader unconscious on the floor.

With a shaking hand John pressed two fingers to the side of her neck, feeling for the flutter of a pulse that would indicate she was alive. She had to be alive, the alternative was not something he was going to even contemplate right now. There's a soft thready rhythm beneath his trembling fingers and he released the breath he'd been holding.

" Elizabeth... Elizabeth! Can you hear me?" He called, tapping her cheek lightly to see if he could rouse her. He waited for a few moments, searching her face for any sign of wakefulness, and seeing none, scooped her up into his arms and bolted for the infirmary. He didn't notice the small pool of blood beneath where her head had been laying, nor how Rodney and Radek's eyes wee unable to leave the crimson stain.

The walk wasn't a long one, but to John it seemed to drag into eternity. The crowded corridors seemed to part before him as he quickly strode through them, as though they sensed his desperation and urgency. Either that or they weren't game enough to stand in the way of the man carrying their deathly still boss towards medical aid.

" Beckett!" John barked as her finally made it to the infirmary, Elizabeth still pale and unconscious in his arms. Carson's head snapped up at the sound and he can't help a gasp as he saw his boss.

" Elizabeth?" He stuttered, almost not believing his own eyes? He scuttled over as John lay her on the nearest vacant bed, pulling the blood coated headset out of her ear and tossing it to the nearby tray.

" Damnit" Carson muttered as he tried to rouse Elizabeth, only to end in failure. He pulled on his stethoscope and checked her heartbeat, finding it thready and faint, but still there for the moment.

" John, I need some space" Carson said gently, elbowing John out of the way so he could work better on the city's leader. Grabbing a tray he deftly hooked up an IV line and injected a strong cocktail of painkillers and medication to reduce brain swelling into port at the top of the saline bag.

John refused to take his eyes of Elizabeth as Carson worked, as though keeping his attention fixed on her would help her recover. Thankfully Ronon piped up from Teyla's bedside, asking if John had a plan. It seemed to break John's mindset just for a moment, causing him to look up.

" Sure" He replied without conviction, and was then all but dragged out of the room by Ronon. Beckett breathed a sigh of relief as the men vanished, meaning he could once again work without having to step around worried friends. He only hoped John and Ronon actually found a way to deal with the problem before more people died.


End file.
